Small Modular Reactors Emerging as Future Energy Business

An image of the planned NuScale small module reactor (SMR)


The small modular reactor (SMR) business is emerging as a future energy business around the world. An SMR is a small nuclear power plant with an electricity output of 300 MW or less. It is attracting attention thanks to its strong safety and no carbon emissions.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction will start manufacturing the main parts of an SMR to be built in Idaho, the United States starting in the first half of 2022. The SMR project is promoted by UAMPS, a power generation company and is scheduled to begin commercial operation in 2029.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction entered the SMR business by signing a business agreement with NuScale Power in the United States. NuScale is the first company to pass all SMR design certification tests by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2020.

Korean investors, including Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and IBK Investment & Securities, invested US$44 million in NuScale on three occasions in 2020. Doosan plans to supply at least US$1.3 billion worth of SMR equipment and materials to overseas markets including the United States through NuScale.

SMRs are characterized by the integration of major devices such as reactors, steam generators, coolant pumps, and pressurizers into one single body which is one-tenth the size of a large nuclear power plant. The accident rate is one-thousandth of current nuclear power plants’. Their small sizes make them easy to install and mass-produce, making SMR construction costs lower than those of nuclear power plants. SMRs are also closely connected to hydrogen energy as hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis using hot water vapor from them.

For this reason, Japan, which had pushed for a policy to shut down all nuclear power plants due to the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in 2011, also jumped into the SMR business. Japanese plant company JGC invested US$40 million in NuScale on April 5. JGC decided to participate in the construction project in Idaho. JGC participates in the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) segment together with NuScale's parent company Floor. JCC is planning to build SMRs on its own in the future.

Russia is the fastest runner in SMR technology development. Russia has already been operating floating nuclear power plants with SMRs since 2019. Russia's floating nuclear power plant, Akademik Lomonosov, is producing 70MW of electricity in the Chukotka Autonomous Region in the Far East, where installation of power transmission facilities and construction of large power plants are difficult. It can run without being refueled for three to five years, which can also significantly reduce power generation costs.

The United Kingdom which had decided to suspend the operation of nuclear power plants in 2035, recently decided to spend at least 200 million pounds on the construction of 16 SMRs over five years by partnering with the Rolls-Royce Consortium. The UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) forecast that the SMRs’ capacity will expand to 65QWe to 85GWe (1GWe is the capacity of a nuclear reactor) by 2035. The market will be worth 240 to 400 billion pounds.

As a result, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction with the world's top-caliber technology for producing nuclear power plant modules is looking to land more orders in earnest down the road.

Copyright © BusinessKorea. Prohibited from unauthorized reproduction and redistribution